The present invention generally relates to an electrical relay and more particularly, to an electromagnetic relay for use in electrical equipment and appliances.
Conventionally, in the field of electromagnetic relays of the above described type, there has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Application Jikkaisho No. 59-9455, an electromagnetic relay which includes an electromagnet portion having an iron core in the form of a rod around which a coil is wound, a movable block including a movable base on which a pair of movable iron pieces are mounted, with a permanent magnet being held therebetween, and adapted to be movable in a direction intersecting at right angles with respect to a longitudinal direction of the iron core by disposing the movable iron pieces to confront magnetized faces at opposite sides of said iron core, and contact mechanisms to be driven for opening and closing, based on the movement of said movable block.
In the known arrangement as described above, however, since movable contact pieces of the contact mechanism are merely fitted into grooves formed in the movable base, although the movable base is fixed in the moving direction thereof, it is not fixed in the longitudinal direction of the movable pieces. i.e., in the longitudinal direction of the iron core, thus resulting in a possibility that the movable base may be positionally displaced or deviated in the longitudinal direction of the movable pieces during use. When the deviation as described above takes place, there will be invited such disadvantages that the movable iron pieces are attracted onto the magnetized faces in an inclined state, or magnetic characteristics are altered due to different contact areas between the iron core and movable iron pieces, or pressure at the contacts are undesirably varied due to variation in the working stroke of the movable contacts.